Housing
Minister Dr Keith Rowley, right, and managing director
of the Housing Development Corporation, Noel Garcia,
peer through a window of one of the new units of
the East Grove development at Ramgoolie Trace, Curepe,
yesterday.

Housing
Minister Dr Keith Rowley presents Judy Ramoutar
with the keys to her new home at East Grove, Ramgoolie
Trace, Curepe, yesterday.

Photos:
Edison Boodoosingh

BY
COREY CONNELLY

Plans are well underway for making the Housing Development
Corporation (HDC) financially self-sufficient, Housing Minister
Dr Keith Rowley has said.

He made the statement while delivering the feature address
at a function to present keys to new homeowners at East
Grove, Ramgoolie Trace, Curepe, yesterday.

The first phase of the development, which was carried out
by QS Services, comprises 16 single units, 116 town units,
54 duplexes, 180 apartments, among other housing models.

It features underground electricity and vast open spaces
for recreation and relaxation.

We
expectin the not-too-distant future to be able
to use the asset base of the HDC to generate the significant
revenues that are required to keep this programme going,
Rowley said, as he outlined the corporations mandate
of providing suitable homes for the nations citizens.

He said the Auditor General was currently reviewing the
HDCs financial statement of work which has been completed
under the public sector housing programme within the past
few years.

We
have done the work. We are simply awaiting the examination
of those reports by the Auditor General and as soon as we
get that signed off upon, the HDC will be in a position
like any other agencyto move towards the banking sector
and to use its own asset base to contribute significantly
to the financing of the housing programme, Rowley
said.

He said that once the assessment was completed, it would
relieve the Minister of Finance of having to inject a large
amount of money into the programme.

When
we get to that stage, the programme would be truly self-sustaining,
the minister added.

Nearing the end of his address, Rowley also spoke about
the establishment of a housing fund to assist young people
with saving toward their homes, as well as a programme targeting
people who have access to a piece of land on which they
want to build.

There
is Government assistance available to persons below a certain
income bracket, if you have a site which you might have
bought some time before or which you have inherited. Once
you have the authority to build on that site, there is a
programme available to get assistance to do your own construction,
he said.

Project consultant Imtiaz Hosein, in his overview, said
the areas road infrastructure and sewerage would be
upgraded to meet the demands of the East Grove development.